Strauss

Robert S. Strauss, who died March 19 at age 95, was a Washington insider back when that was a compliment. The New York Times obituary called the former Democratic chairman a “kingmaker” in a bygone era when party leaders held a lot more power. “A loud, sometimes profane backslapper, he made his name in the nation’s capital as a persuasive back-room trouble-shooter, a virtuoso of hardball negotiation and gentle suasion,” BusinessWeek wrote. Strauss helped some Democrats like Jimmy Carter get …